Investing £45million to improve your ferry service

Our £45million investment in a new ship and port facilities has reached an important milestone. The two-tier boarding ramps at both Portsmouth and Fishbourne are now being used to load and unload our biggest ship, St Clare quickly and efficiently. This saves time and considerably reduces delays and congestion at busy times.

We can now load cars and small vans on the upper deck and lorries, coaches etc on the lower deck of St Clare at the same time.

Project Update

Summer 2017

Our two tier boarding ramps are now in use on our current flagship St Clare and will also be employed on our new ferry when she comes into service next year.

We are testing the new vacuum MoorMaster equipment made by Cavotec and will use it to safely hold St Clare in place on the berth later in the year. The system will also be used on the new ship in 2018. Construction work on the vessel is progressing well at the Cemre shipyard in Yalova, Turkey.

Thanks to all our neighbours for their patience and understanding during the re-development of the port.

Autumn 2017

Our new customer building will open at Portsmouth Gunwharf. Facilities will include a second floor café with an outside terrace giving fine views over the harbour.

Summer 2018

Our new ferry will arrive in the Solent, heralding a new era in cross-Solent travel.

Carry more cars, lorries and other vehicles at times when our customers want to travel

Help us to improve reliability and punctuality, especially at the busiest times of the year

Introduce new hybrid battery technology to operate more efficiently and quietly and reduce turnaround times

Our project has won the backing of our local authorities… planning committee councillors on both Isle of Wight and Portsmouth councils voted unanimously to approve our applications for the project to build new boarding ramps so we can introduce double deck loading for the new ship.

Construction of Wightlink’s new ferry is well underway at the Cemre shipyard in Yalova, Turkey. The steel hull is almost complete, as you can see from these pictures from the yard.

Wightlink will take delivery of the ship, powered by low sulphur marine gas oil and hybrid battery power in 2018 and crew will sail her home to the Solent to start serving the Isle of Wight next summer.

Looking to the future

Wightlink’s Chief Executive Keith Greenfield has been interviewed by Shaping Portsmouth about our £45million Investing for the Future project. Find out what he said here.

A new flagship

Our new ship will be slightly larger than St Clare. It will use sustainable hybrid battery technology (as well as conventional fuel), reducing our carbon footprint and making arrivals and departures quieter. The new ferry will have two fixed vehicle decks to hold the equivalent of 178 cars and more than 1,000 people along with comfortable seats and cafés.

After careful consideration, we chose the experienced Cemre shipyard in Turkey to carry out the work. We expect to welcome the new ship to the Solent in spring 2018.

More room for vehicles on St Clare

We’ve extended the top vehicle deck of St Clare so it can carry more cars. And, as soon as the new boarding ramps are built at Portsmouth Gunwharf and Fishbourne, customers will drive on board our vehicle decks on two levels via the new easy-to-use double deck ramps.

What’s happening at Fishbourne?

A new easy-to-use double deck loading ramp will be built by spring 2017 to enable cars, lorries and other vehicles to be loaded and unloaded more quickly and quietly. As much of the structure as possible will be built off site and assembled at the terminal to minimise disruption to customers and neighbours.

What’s happening at Portsmouth Gunwharf?

A second tier of boarding lanes will be built by summer 2017 to allow easy-to-use double deck loading on both our new ship and St Clare. This will mean cars, lorries and other vehicles can be loaded and unloaded more quickly and quietly. As much of the structure as possible will be built offsite and assembled at the terminal to minimise disruption to customers and neighbours. Our new boarding lanes will cut congestion in Portsmouth at the busiest times of the year.

Thanks for your help

Throughout the planning process, we consulted with hundreds of our customers and neighbours at meetings and drop-in sessions on both sides of the Solent. All opinions, comments and suggestions were taken into account as we drew up our proposals. For example, we changed the design of our boarding lanes at Portsmouth and improved the entrance and exit to our terminal at Fishbourne following comments from local people.

We continue to welcome feedback as the project develops. We will keep you informed of progress on this webpage.

Everyone at Wightlink was pleased to receive unanimous support from members of the planning committees of both Isle of Wight Council and Portsmouth City Council who approved our applications and recognised our investment will benefit tourism and the local economy.

Frequently asked questions

IFTFGeneral

Tell me more about hybrid battery technology

We will be using sustainable hybrid battery power in our new ship alongside conventional marine gas oil. This will reduce our carbon footprint and we expect it will also make the ship quieter to operate. While this exciting innovation will make our new ship the most environmentally friendly in the Solent, it is a tried and tested technology. Three ferries operated by Caledonian MacBrayne in Scotland already use hybrid power.

24 people found this faq useful.

Can you give us an example of this kind of double deck loading in action elsewhere?

Red Funnel use a doubledeck system at Southampton and East Cowes. Other examples can also be seen at the Portsmouth International Port, Dover, Cairnryan, Belfast,

22 people found this faq useful.

What are you doing to minimise light and air pollution?

Terminal lights will be low level to avoid light pollution as far as possible. Double deck loading will reduce the length of time car engines are running. The introduction of double deck loading will also reduce the noise currently associated with moveable car decks.

9 people found this faq useful.

Why don’t you move to the Portsmouth International Port?

There are lots of reasons why this isn’t a practical option. At the moment, we operate a round trip to and from Fishbourne in just two hours. Using Portsmouth International Port, this would take three hours. We would need extra fuel to make the longer journey, so fares would inevitably rise. To maintain our lifeline service to the Isle of Wight and carry the same amount of traffic, we would have to buy larger ships. Our timetables would be frequently disrupted by the harbour closures caused by Royal Navy ships (delays which cross-Channel ferries can make up on their much longer sailings, but which would affect our customers more severely)

32 people found this faq useful.

Why didn’t you choose a UK shipyard to build the new ship?

We received more than 30 tenders for the work from shipyards around the world. We made our decision based on quality, price and delivery schedules and chose the experienced Cemre shipyard in Turkey. BAE Systems in Portsmouth did not submit a tender.

19 people found this faq useful.

Are you increasing the amount of freight you carry?

No, and we have no plans to accommodate trailers on our terminals

12 people found this faq useful.

Will you keep us informed of progress?

We are keeping Fishbourne Parish Council and ward councillor Ivor Warlow fully briefed on the progress of our plans as well as updating this webpage when we have news to report.

10 people found this faq useful.

Portsmouth Gunwharf FAQ

IFTFGunwharf

I’ve read that the new facilities will be quieter. Why is this?

There are several reasons why we expect the new facilities to be quieter. At all times, lorries will only use the lower deck of the loading area, which will be screened and so noise will be minimised. The introduction of double deck loading will reduce the noise currently associated with moveable car decks on the ferries.

12 people found this faq useful.

How will bringing in a bigger boat help to reduce congestion?

Drivers of all vehicles entering Wightlink’s Gunwharf terminal will be able to wait for their sailing in a much larger area than at present. The new boarding lanes will have space for three ships’ worth of traffic. This means cars, vans and lorries will not cause congestion in Gunwharf Road if there are any delays. In addition, we won’t need to use the car park over the road to store and marshal vehicles as much as we do now.

16 people found this faq useful.

Won’t it be more difficult for people using the Millennium Walkway to cross the road in future?

We expect pedestrians will not notice any change. We will only be carrying a maximum of 27 more cars than at present on our largest vessels (the new ship and St Clare) and then only on the busiest sailings such as school holiday weekends.

9 people found this faq useful.

What will the decks look like in terms of colour and texture?

We have worked closely with planners at Portsmouth City Council and heritage experts and the ramp leading to part of the upper deck will resemble the nearby historic dockyard wall. Throughout the process, we have done our best to make our development fit in with our surroundings in old Portsmouth.

12 people found this faq useful.

Fishbourne FAQ

IFTFFishbourne

What will the new boarding ramp look like?

We will do our best to make sure the new ramp blends into the environment at Fishbourne. We will not be putting advertisements on it and we welcome suggestions from local people about what colour we should paint it.

14 people found this faq useful.

Can you look at re-aligning the entrance to the terminal so lorries entering the port do not have to swing out into the centre of Fishbourne Lane blocking access for residents?

Although some of our neighbours have suggested a new layout for the terminal entrance, we did not include this proposal on our application drawings as we do not own the relevant land. However, we are always happy to consider ideas to improve our facilities and will take suggestions on board if we can.

11 people found this faq useful.

Fishbourne Lane ought to be resurfaced soon. Can you help?

While this is a matter for Island Roads, we would be happy to support residents, if we can.